How to recreate root account in MySQL

Today I was trying to log in to mysql database administration on one of my hosting machines and as I was getting 'permission denied for user rott@localhost' I tried to fix the root account and reset its password. But I wasn't successful and later on I realized, that the root account was deleted from the mysql database by one of my friends accidentally. I started to search the internet what to do, but the only thing I have found regarding this issue was question on MySQL forum with exactly the same problem but no answer. So as usual, I tried to solve it by myself and here is it is.

The pre requisition is a shell access on your MySQL machine. Then you have to stop the standard mysql daemon and start the database in safe mode.

[code language="bash"] /etc/init.d/mysql stop mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables [/code]

Then log in as a root and switch to mysql system database.

[code language="bash"] mysql -u root mysql> use mysql; [/code]

Try to check that the root user is not present in user table:

[code language="bash"] mysql> select * from user where User='root'; [/code]

If the database return empty record, lets manually insert the root user with empty password and then set all the permissions which he normally needs:

[code language="bash"] mysql> insert into user (Host, User, Password) values ('localhost','root',''); Query OK, 1 rows affected (0.04 sec) mysql> update user set Select_priv='Y',Insert_priv='Y',Update_priv='Y',Delete_priv='Y',Create_priv='Y',Drop_priv='Y',Reload_priv='Y',Shutdown_priv='Y',Process_priv='Y',File_priv='Y',Grant_priv='Y',References_priv='Y',Index_priv='Y',Alter_priv='Y',Show_db_priv='Y',Super_priv='Y',Create_tmp_table_priv='Y',Lock_tables_priv='Y',Execute_priv='Y',Repl_slave_priv='Y',Repl_client_priv='Y',Create_view_priv='Y',Show_view_priv='Y',Create_routine_priv='Y',Alter_routine_priv='Y',Create_user_priv='Y' where user='root'; Query OK, 1 rows affected (0.03 sec) [/code]

Then quit the database console, kill the mysqld_safe daemon and start the standard mysql daemon again:

[code language="bash"] mysql> quit killall mysqld_safe /etc/init.d/mysql start [/code]

Try to log in into mysql console again with an empty password and for double check, try to run 'grant' command to see that the account is fully working:

[code language="bash"] mysql -u root mysql> grant all privileges on *.* to 'root'@'localhost' with grant option; Query OK, 1 rows affected (0.03 sec)</pre> [/code]

And thats it, your basic root acount is working again. Don't forget to change the password or add the hostname to it, but that depends on your needs.